Industry captains hail Modi govt's first Budget

SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya welcomed the pronouncements on the consolidation of banks, saying it should be done in a time-bound manner

Welcoming the Narendra-Modi-led NDA government's maiden Budget 2014-15, industry players said it sets the tone for attaining higher growth trajectory, job creation and attracting investments for an economy grappling with multiple challenges.

"I think the approach of creating a stable business environment to attract investment and boost economic growth, that direction comes across clearly. I am very happy personally by his (Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's) focus on job creation," CII President Ajay Shriram said.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said: "Infrastructure funding had become a bad word for banks. Banks were not willing to fund. With this move, an out of the box thinking will enable long term lending for infrastructure sector".

State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya welcomed the pronouncements on the consolidation of banks, saying it should be done in a time-bound manner.

"The budget emphasises a bottoms-up approach to reignite growth," she said.

"The Finance Minister's maiden budget signals, both in sentiment and policy, the new government's intention to drive the next generation of reforms and swiftly put India on a higher GDP growth path," Tata Consultancy Services Chief Executive and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran said.

Y C Deveshwar, chairman, ITC, said, "Within the constraints of time and a challenging economic environment, the Finance Minister has presented a comprehensive budget which addresses some key reforms with a welcome focus on physical and social infrastructure".

Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder, Infosys said Digital India project is an important initiative taken by the government to leverage technology to serve citizens better. It will also help grow the domestic IT industry, he added.

"Initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and startup's are also welcome. This will benefit the IT industry since many startup's happen in the IT sector," he said.

Joint chairman of Emami group R S Agarwal said the maiden budget presented by the BJP-led NDA Government is in overall a very good budget, adding that the budget is aimed towards expansion of the country's economy and develop a future roadmap for growth.

Presenting his maiden Budget, Jaitley today said the prevailing economic situation presents a great challenge and there was a need to introduce fiscal prudence that will lead to fiscal consolidation and discipline.

Mahindra and Mahindra Director Arun Nanda, however, termed the budget as a "populist budget".

"Looks like it is more of a populist budget. Much of the hype was created but there was disappointment. I personally feel a status-quo type of situation," he said.